Music for Cello and Piano 2 Songs

PIATTI Music for Cello and Piano 2 Songs Andrea Noferini cello Roberto Plano piano · Joanna Klisowska soprano ALFREDO PIATTI 1822-1901 Supposing you came across a concert program announcing Alfredo Piatti as the cellist, Music for Cello and Piano · 2 Songs and Nicolò Paganini as the violinist: even first-time concert goers would probably know something about the latter, whose name is practically synonymous with the violin, whereas only cello specialists would be familiar with the name of Piatti. 1. Fantasia Sopra Alcuni Motivi della Gemma The two musicians were very different in character, and this probably helps di Vergy by Geatano Donizetti for cello and piano (1840) 15’43 explain why one managed to become the personification of his chosen instrument, 2. Air Baskyrs Op.8 for cello and piano (1844) 4’58 projecting a lasting image of his “diabolical” achievements, whereas the other was 3. L’Abbandono Op.1 for cello and piano (1842) 10’05 described as “…slightly built and very simple, a man who shuns all affectation and 4. Capriccio over a Theme from “Niobe” by charlatanism…” (Revue de Paris, 1844). Giovanni Pacini Op.22 for cello solo (1843) 9’40 Born in Bergamo in 1822, Carlo Alfredo Piatti was for the cello what Nicolò 5. Pioggia d’Aprile Studio Capriccio for cello and piano 2’27 Paganini was for the violin: a musician who transcended the acme of culture and 6. Notturno Op.20 for cello and piano (1865) 5’55 performance regarding his instrument. Having completed his studies under Vincenzo 7. La Bergamasca Op.14 for cello and piano (1852) 4’54 Merighi at the Conservatoire in Milan, he began his professional career in 1837, playing in the orchestras of the Teatro Sociale and the Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo, 8. O Swallow, Swallow for soprano, cello and piano 4’05 and later with the Teatro Regio in Turin and the Teatro Carcano in Milan. 9. La Sera Nocturne for soprano, cello and piano (1840) 7’01 His remarkable talent was immediately evident, to the extent that by 1843 he was already travelling throughout Europe on concert tours, accompanied by his father. During this period, which included almost a whole year in Russia, he met with great acclaim, although from the economic point of view it was an uphill struggle, Andrea Noferini cello despite the esteem he earned among personalities of the calibre of Felix Mendelssohn Roberto Plano piano Bartoldy, François Servais, Jacobs Mayerbeer and Franz Lizst. Indeed, it was this Joanna Klisowska soprano latter who described him as “a Paganini of the Cello”, presenting him with an Amati cello as a token of his admiration. Piatti’s peregrinations culminated in a visit to London, where he settled in 1846. In the mid-1800s, musical life in the British capital was full of energy and opportunity. In next to no time Piatti was appointed First Cello a Her Majesty’s Theatre, and at Covent Garden. It was thanks to this professional position that in 1847 he took part in the premiere performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s I Masnadieri. On learning that Piatti was playing in the orchestra, the composer wrote a Prelude consisting of a cello solo Recording: 16-18 June 2016, BartòkStudio, Bernareggio, Italy Producer & Sound Engineer: Raffaele Cacciola, BartòkStudio Artistic Project & Artistic Director: Andrea Noferini Editing: Gianluca Laponte & Andrea Noferini (Capriccio Op.22) Mastering: BartokStudio Instruments: Cello, “Otello Bignami” Bologna 1981; Piano, “Bösendorfer Gran Coda” Cover: © by Alfredo Piatti p & © 2018 Brilliant Classics with an orchestral accompaniment, which he dedicated to the great cellist. Stradivari that had been given to him and that today bears his name. Curiously During the many years he lived in London, Piatti also pursued a brilliant career enough, during his long career he never used a spike, preferring to play his instrument as a soloist and a member of chamber ensembles, regularly taking part in the city’s in the baroque style, wedged between his legs. Piatti’s friend and colleague Adrien- Popular Concerts. He thus came into contact with important musicians of the time, François Servais, whom Hector Berlioz described as “a Paganini of the cello”, was including Camillo Sivori, Giovanni Bottesini, Clara Schumann, Henri Vieuxtemps, one of the first to adopt the new endpin, which was rapidly gaining ground among Joseph Joachim, Antòn Rubinstein, Edvard Grieg, Hans von Bülow, Antonio Bazzini, cellists of the period. Henryk Wieniawski and Pablo Sarasate. He ultimately left London in 1898, spending his last years in Mozzo, near his native Bergamo, where he died in 1901. Fantasia Sopra Alcuni Motivi della Gemma di Vergy Piatti’s repertoire comprised virtuoso pieces, solo works with piano or orchestral At the time many composers wrote virtuoso-style arrangements and variations on accompaniment, and a wide range of chamber music in view of the fact that he played opera arias. In 1840 Piatti published a somewhat heterogeneous work based on with various ensembles, including the quartet in which Joachim played first violin. themes from Gaetano Donizetti’s opera La gemma di Vergy, which was premiered at The music that most interested him went from Corelli to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven La Scala in Milan in 1834. and Schubert, without neglecting the works of his own contemporaries, such as The original version of this Fantasia envisaged the solo cello accompanied by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns. an orchestra, but to extend its appeal the composer also arranged and published a As a composer, on the other hand, Piatti studied under the guidance of his friend version for cello and piano. This was common practice at the time, the piano score Bernhard Molique, later producing a considerable catalogue of different works. being a mere arrangement of the orchestral part, along the lines of the piano scores Written during the years of his far-flung concert tours, his arrangements of great that are still used today to accompany singers performing opera arias. opera themes took the form of Fantasies, Souvenirs and Variations and were definitely The Fantasia begins with an orchestral introduction, the Allegro, which is followed written for public performance. The compositions based on folk tunes came into the by a Solo, a piacere statement on the part of the cello preceding the first Aria, an same category, whereas the shorter pieces were usually performed as an encore. Andante in 12/8 time with embellishments in gruppetti tagliati featuring a descending In his work Piatti managed to reconcile virtuoso skill with a highly lyrical approach flourish to the key note, a device that recurs throughout the composition. At the end to melody, his overall handling of composition revealing his debt to vocal technique. of the Aria there is an opulent Allegro that embodies a brilliant technical expedient Clearly his aim was to enrich the somewhat limited 19th century cello repertoire to introduce the new variation in 3/4 time, and Allegro in the shape of a waltz that with gems such as the Capricci Op.25, written in 1865. The intrinsic beauty of is then reworked in agile double triplets, arpeggios and octaves. A further orchestral these pieces, which unquestionably also embody a degree of didactic intent, explains passage links this up with a Moderato, capriccioso, which in its turn heralds a why they are now hailed as cornerstones of the cello repertoire, just as the Paganini new Aria. As with the Capriccio della Niobe Op.22, the ben legato subject of the Capricci are for the violin. new Aria is “self-accompanied”, not only by the piano, but also by the cello itself, Piatti retired from public performance in 1897, having since 1866 played a with measured trills on the lowest string that echo the tremoli of the strings in the orchestra. The serried conclusion of the Aria features octaves that tend towards the L’Abbandono Op.1 cadenza (Tempo a piacere, con molta espressione) that is developed in harmonics Song for cello and piano, published in 1842. in the second part, leading to a recapitulation of the waltz motif, this time in the This Andante Melanconico in B flat major features an extreme example of a trait halved values of 6/8 rather than 3/4 time, followed by a coda and the resolution in typical of Piatti’s handling of melody in writing for the cello: the use of octaves in classic opera style, in which Piatti invests the cello part with an amazing display of the thematic passages, especially in the development and the recapitulation. In this picchettati, double thirds and octaves. case, the cello voices the double tessitura in the second part of the composition, as if it were a variation. Moreover, apart from the subject in octaves, Piatti has also added Air Baskyrs Op.8 a constant trill to the lower note that greatly enhances the complex audacity of the This work was written during Piatti’s year-long stay in St Petersburg, between 1844 and entire passage. 1845, when he spent a great deal of time with his fellow countryman, the Bergamo- born tenor Gian Battista Rubini, with whom he also performed in many concerts. Capriccio over a Theme from “Niobe” by Giovanni Pacini Op.22 The Baskyrs were an ethnic group of Turkish and Tartar origins, largely residing in Written in 1843, the Capriccio Op.22 derives from the Aria “I tuoi frequenti palpiti” the area between Belaja on the Volga and the southern reaches of the Ural mountains. from Giovanni Pacini’s opera “Niobe”. Apart from the 12 Capricci Op.25, it is The story behind Air Baskyrs concerns a Baskyr man who often used to linger by Piatti’s only other Capriccio for solo cello.

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